This pertains to an incident with the Work-Study program that happened to someone I know personally for the summer semester of 2005 at the Northridge campus of Austin Community College in Austin, Texas where diversity is NOT appreciated! (The difference is that the discrimination comes as a matter of socioeconomic class instead of race, ethnicity, religion, etc.)
A student who qualified for the Work-Study program was presented with a list of three choices of where they would work on the campus. Work-Study is a federal program that helps financially needy students by paying the college or university to employ them in a useful job that wouldn't get done otherwise. The pay here would have been $8.50 an hour for 15-20 hours worth of work a week.
My informant tells me that the student checked out the three employment placement options: one was the NORTHRIDGE campus police office, the other was the library and the other was an office environment where nobody was smiling and looked sad all the time. Ths student chose to work in the police office because it would be something new and different every day and out of a genuine desire to help other people. The student's background check came back with NO CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS AND NO ARRESTS. EVER.
What was not disclosed is that the police department had apparently never had a work-study student employed at their office before and while the lieutenant in charge may have wanted one, the rest of the department DID NOT WANT ONE. They countermanded orders, gave contradictory orders and did everything they could to make the job hell for the work-study student amounted to CREATING A HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT.
Since there had apparently not been any previous work - study program students employed in the police office, then the work-study student in there was accused of being a THIEF! Itself an actionable offense.
Along with the other EEOC problems there was NO JOB DESCRIPTION and no clearcut chain of demand. The officers would say "people like you might not be happy here." and "you won't have time to study and work here. "And other remarks which won't be posted on a family-oriened web site.
When the "hints" were not taken, a campus police officer with a Spanish surname allegedly told the student that they were not going to be trusted with anything in the office because previous work study students - "those people" - STEAL. The implication was made if the student didn't leave and not come back that the student would be "set up" and falsely accused of theft. Well, that was enough right there.
You see, there had been NO other work-study students previously assigned there or there would have been a job description and avery clearcut chain of command and the duties would have been explained and ADEQUATE TRAINING provided. None of that happened - in violation of EEOC rules. (This school gets a lot of federal funding, by the way and was supposedly created to help low-income students imprive themselves with educational opportunity.)
The student went to complain about the horrific treatment and intimidation to the Work Study Program coordinator that made the assignments. After a show of righteous indignation was made, it was strongly suggested that the student go apply somewhere else on the campus. But there was noplace else left by then that hadn't apparently been informed about the fiasco and nobody wanted a "thief" (re: economically disadvantaged student) in their department. Apparently, word had been spread even though nothing was ever stolen and no proof of theft documented and no charges filed.
The campus police lieutenant then proceeded to find the student and intimidate them into not saying anything futher about the incident. The student was then called back into the Work Study office where it was explained that Aguilar would be their DIRECT supervisor if they EVER went back to work in the campus police office.
There were a number of other discriminatory and defamatory comments made as well but it ended up with the student declining the work study grant that they really needed because they were broke and living in a borrowed car and missing a lot of meals.
There has been sporatic instances of harrassment every since to this student and they will probably continue until the student is harrassed off the NORTHRIDGE campus.
There should have been justice and redress for this act of discrimination but there was NO justice!
I am posting this to warn persons who are on the Pell Grant, work-study or any other form of financial aid and are from a poor background NOT to go to this campus.
I know this student personally. Their great-grandfather is a Texas Ranger and she was in security for many years. The student does not steal and does not profile or discrimnate against anyone. The student did not deserve what was done to her there.
The funny thing is the ACC people on the NORTHRIDGE campus pride themselves on CULTURAL DIVERSITY and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.
The people at the Northridge ACC campus who are supposed to be helping the poor students here can NOT relate to what they have not themselves personally experienced so they don't help so much as they try to find a way for ALL poor and economically disadvantaged students to be OFF of THIS campus. If they can cause you to LOSE your work-study funding and your grants, then you will be OFF of this CAMPUS for sure.
This little secret needs to be told so poor students can away from here!
I am told that this is the ONLY Austin Community College campus where discrimination like this and that the others are more tolerant and understanding. But I am only writing about the NORTHRIDGE campus.
The same thing might have happened to other students. I would like to hear from them if it did.
It needs to be stopped!
Nobody needs to be treated like this!
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